Latino Leadership Council

Tag Archives: dependency

Recently we used this blog space to begin a conversation about balancing the need to provide crucial services with the risk of creating dependency and complacency among the recipients of those free services. We want to ensure that through the services we provide, the Latino Leadership Council creates the independence, competency and pride necessary for community members to not only stand on their own two feet, but also lend a helping hand to those around them. That’s why I was so excited at our most recent community meeting, where students from our English as a Second Language (ESL) class attended to share with us their personal stories and show us how the free classes we offer have changed their lives. … Continue Reading →

Good intentions are often just not good enough. We try our best to help our community and the families we serve by providing free services and bending over backwards to be accommodating and do as much as we can to assist them. But at what point is our help simply creating dependency and contributing to the long-term problems our community faces? Are free services taken for granted and unappreciated simply because they are offered for free? If the people we are trying to help had to pay for the services in some way, whether monetarily or in a different way, would the services be more effective? I don’t have the answers, but I sure do think that it’s a discussion worth having and that a better way, though perhaps yet undiscovered, must exist. … Continue Reading →